Rooibos Red Ale

My wife is a huge fan of Rooibos tea with some honey. Her birthday is in april, and I'm going to make her a batch of Rooibos Red Ale.

For anyone who doesn't know, Rooibos tea is an African red tea, and has a grassy/earthy flavor that can exhibit some spice notes if steeped long enough.

Let me know your thoughts on the following 5 gallon recipe:
Grain:
6 lb US 2 row (2 SRM)
1/2 lb Dark Munich (15.5 SRM)
1 lb CaraMunich (45 SRM)
1 lb Red Wheat (2.5 SRM)
1 lb Honey

Hops:
1/2 oz Kent Golding (AA ~5%)
@ 60, 30, 15, and 1 minute.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II

Adding Rooibos Tea at flameout, and in secondary/bottling if needed. To impart the tea, I plan on:
Boiling water, cooling to 210-205, and steeping the tea. Then adding tea to kettle.


Any ideas/comments? I'll be sure to post back with reviews as well!

I think that sounds great. I think I may try this at some point and add a few vanilla beans in

Do you have OG/projected FG?

I'm a pretty big fan if the rooibos myself and recently made a tea beer emulating sleepytime vanilla (mostly chamomile). I think this could be pretty good - rooibos has a nice earthy/nutty flavor that I think would mix well in a beer without too much tannin. One thought would be to keep the grain bill pretty simple - I think the tea character can be easily overwhelmed with too many different malts. I like the sound of the bill as is honestly. Let us know how it turns out!

Thanks for the feedback!

Does anyone think 2 oz of the low acid Kent Goldings will cover up the tea?

jrlemay said:

Do you have OG/projected FG?

Click to expand...

From iPA,
OG = 1.058 @ 70% efficiency
FG = 1.015

ABV = 5.9%

I only used 0.8 oz for 3 gal batch of my sleepytime, but it was a very light beer.. I would expect this could be OK with a bit more. Flavor-wise I think you'd be OK, might want to double check ibus, I think most reds are in the 20-30 range.

Brewing this today!

10 Gallon Batch, E-BIAB System

Ingredients (All finely crushed at LHBS on my lunchbreak!):
12# US-2 Row
1# Dark Munich
2# Red Wheat
2# CaraMunich
4oz Kent Goldings

Mash @ 156* for 60 Minutes
Mash Out @ 168*

Boil for 60 Minutes
1oz Kent Goldings @ 60, 30, 15, 1 minutes

Add Tea at flameout, and will chill with bags submerged.

Add 3lb Dark Wildflower Honey at when transfering to carboy. Shake to dissolve.

iPA (iphone brewer app) Stats:
OG: 1.055
Color: 14.9 SRM
IBU: 20


I'll defiently let you know how it ends up... but the public launch wont be until April 10th. (I may or may not sneak a bottle beforehand)

Everything went great.... except I forgot to add the honey.

Does anyone have a reccomendation on when and how to add it now?

Should I pop the top of my carboy and add the honey at room temp? Or should I dissolve the honey is hot water, and add that when cool? Should I wait for kraussen, post kraussen?

I'm lost here!

It may be too late for this batch, but in the past I've had good luck using honey as priming sugar. You don't need nearly as much of it, and you still get a great honey undertone to the finished beer. I'm looking at doing a Rooibos Red in the future as well, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about this one!

Bit oo late for this one, but thanks for the reccomendation. It will be "in bottle" for three weeks on saturday. I plan on popping one while bottling my IPA. I'll report back when I have some notes.

Just popped the first bottle...

I really like it! We will have to wait to see what the lovely wife thinks, but I'm feeling a hit.

It's uniquely earthy. Upon pouring, you get a loamy smell, with some notes of spice, and of course malt. First taste is sweet maltyness, followed by a traditional Rooibos tea flavor. The spicyness and earthness come thro last, and finish the sip (gulp) well. The bittering hops don't come thro (which was intentional).

Downside was, it's not really "red" . A lot of the color from the tea seemed to dissapate in fermentation, and in the bottles. It's a goldish amber color.

I also added ~10 teabags that were dropped into my priming sugar boil right after I took it off the heat. I racked onto this sugar/tee mixture and bottled.


Looking forward to getting friend and family reactions!

Congrats!

I made a beer with Rooibos and some smoked malt last year and it was arguably the best beer that I've made.

First off, your wife has the best birthdate of the year, I just drank my birthday beer yesterday, too!

Secondly, I like the sound of this a lot. My boyfriend lived in South Africa for 2 years and drinks rooibos almost every day. I will definitely try this (or similar) recipe for his birthday beer in a few months. Thanks!